Reliable Percusion

[Wigamajig]

Just wondering what people thought.

What is the most reliable, No.11's or Musket percusion caps?

 

[Keppy]

I have used many diffrent brands with great success. I personally like dyamite nobel brand caps. Seem to be cleaner. But thats my opinion. I see no reason to use musket caps. I use black powder and #11 caps work just fine. If I clean and do my part it fires everytime. Now some that target shoot will probably have a certain brand that works better for them. I am just a hunter and shoot for fun. Good luck

 

[paulvallandigham]

Take your gun out into a dark garage or into the back yard at night, with no lights on and fire a couple of caps off. Watch the muzzle of the gun. You should see a good sized flame coming out of the barrel, from just the cap, regardless of how long a barrel is on your gun. Then try the musket caps. If you are shooting Black Powder, rather than the substitute powders, the #11 caps should be all you ever need. If you are shooting substitutes, the burning temperature of these powder is much higher, and you may benefit from using Musket caps.

Don't spend money you don't have to.

As for brands, try them. Not all nipples are the same diameters, so you may find one brand fits your nipple better than another. That seems to be the main difference.

When you develop a load for your gun, shoot the load over a chronograph using different caps, to see what changes in velocity using different caps will give you. Take notes, so you can have that information at hand when you go shopping for caps again. I bought 1000 caps the last time I bought caps at Friendship. I paid less than half what you will be charged today. Because I am down to one percussion gun, and am primarly shooting flint, I don't go through as many caps as I once did. I still have several hundred left. But, when I go back to resupply, I will buy a few of this and a few of that, and I will take a new nipple with me to try the caps on, and I will fire my standard load over a chronograph again to see if the caps are the same, or have changed. Its part of the deal. Enjoy.

 

[Hobobob74]

I'm with everyone else. #11 for Black Powder, Musket Caps for others. I only use BP and #11's. I like the Remingtons #11's personaly. They are a little bit bigger than CCI ones (The only other ones i've found>) The CCI's sit up to high on my nipple and split all down the sides of the when i fire. #11 is the way to go if you clean aften and well. :v

 

[Zonie]

The only musket caps I've shot were on reproduction rifled muskets so I can't say whether they are better than regular #11s on a regular rifle.
A first thought is they should be better but then there is the issue of size.
Musket caps are larger in diameter and some of the regular rifles hammers aren't very large. Any mis-alignment of the hammer with the nipple could make the hammer hang up on the larger caps. That would make things worse.

IMO, the best solution to making a percussion reliable deals with the loading methods more than the size of the cap being used.

Of course everyone knows they should "pop a few caps" on their gun before loading just to blow out any dirt, oil, spiders etc that may be in the gun.
Most know that they should run a clean patch down the bore to wipe out any excess oil that may have run down the barrel and collected on the breech plug face before loading the first shot too.

What some folks don't know is when they load, the hammer needs to be at half cock with no primer on the nipple.
After dumping the powder charge down the barrel, its a good idea to rap the side of the gun with their hand, somewhere down around the breech of the barrel. This will knock some of the powder down towards the nipple.

If they load this way, when the ball is rammed down the bore, the air under it will blow the powder back under the nipple so the slightest flame from the cap will set it off.

As for brand names, I've had my best luck with the #11 CCI Magnum and the RWS caps. These seem to have the hottest loudest flame.
I would rate the Remington caps third, but that is just my opinion. :grin:

zonie

 

[rabjr]

My caps have always been and always will be #11 RWS caps.

 

[PreglerD]

I use 4,7 mm caps from Sellier and Bellot, a czech firm. They fit very well, nearly no misfires. Problem is that the RWS caps don't fit on the investarm niples because they are to thick.

 

[Rat Trapper]

I have had very good luck with the CCI #11 mag caps. I shot Tripple Seven 2f in my TC Hawken and have had no problems with these caps. Make sure you keep all caps either in the orginal container or in a zip lock bag if you are using a capper. Caps left laying around uncovered might pick up mositure from the air and then lose some power.

 

[playfarmers]

I use CCI's #11 [usualy the Mag] all the time. Once we tried Remington caps and found them to be very poor, but they might have been sitting around for a while.

 

[bob308]

i have used cci rem and d-n caps i liked them all found no difference in shooting. i have used musket caps on my 1841 i also have a nipple that lets me us #11 on it too they set it off just as well as the musket caps.

to only real advantage i have found with musket caps is they are easier to handle in a hurry or if you have cold fingers.

 

[roundball]

CCI#11 Magnums

 

[Smk50]

CCI magnum # 11's for me, I had a bad batch of remingtons once and that left a bad taste in my mouth, never had a problem with cci, I just prefer the magnums.

 

[MercerLake]

When I'm hunting, I prefer the musket cap as it is much easier to handle with cold wet fingers. The musket cap is much hotter and this may help in extreme cold like zero or below. Other than that the #11s are good enough. The cap must fit the cone of the nipple properly, no matter what or you'll have misfires. The foil that covers the priming mixture can cause ignition problems as it can plug the nipple. :grin:

 

[Blizzard of '93]

I figger ye have busted a few caps, loading technique shows it. :thumbsup: